"Kaelen Dragonyx…" Endless' voice was both thunder and whisper, filling the hall without effort. His lips curved into a smirk. "The vessel of my prize… the Pandora. It sings within you still. I can hear it, feel it. It should belong to me. It was always meant to be mine."

Kaelen stepped forward, his voice sharp but calm. "Pandora is no tool for you, Endless. It chose me because it knew what you would do with it—consume, corrupt, destroy. It is no longer just power. It is will. And that will is tied to me."

Alen chuckled darkly, rising from his seat. "Such arrogance. Do you really think you are master of Pandora? It doesn't matter what you believe, boy. Endless will rip it from your soul, piece by piece."

Kael Dragonyx leaned forward, his eyes like molten amber. "You stand before inevitability. Endless has transcended mortality. You cannot comprehend the scale of his power. Hand over the Pandora willingly, Kaelen, and perhaps he will let your pitiful friends die quickly."

Kelvin, standing at Kaelen's side, spat on the obsidian floor. "You overgrown tyrants talk too much. Kaelen's not just carrying Pandora. He is Pandora now. If Endless wants it, he'll have to carve through the heart of the only man who's beaten death more than once."

Guinevere's hands ignited with flame, her golden hair catching the glow as her fury burned brighter. "We came here to end your reign, Endless. Not to kneel, not to beg. Every soul you've devoured cries for vengeance."

Lila added coldly, her gaze piercing Kael Dragonyx like ice, "And vengeance is patient. Today, it has finally arrived."

Kael only sneered in response. "Pathetic. You think vengeance will save you? It will break you."

Endless leaned forward slightly, his smirk never faltering. "All of you are noise. The truth is simple—Kaelen is the final key. With Pandora fully awakened in him, he is both the lock and the door. Once I claim him, the world, the realms beyond, even the stars themselves—will bend."

Kaelen lifted his blade, its royal blue glow clashing against the dark of the throne room. His voice, though steady, carried a dangerous edge. "Then come and take me, Endless. If you think you can."

"Gladly"

Endless' grin widened, almost boyish in its cruelty. Then, without warning, he moved.

In less than a heartbeat, faster than sound itself, the world blurred. One moment Kaelen stood before his allies, the next Endless' clawed hand was around his throat, lifting him effortlessly from the ground. Gasps rang out from Lila, Kelvin, and the others, but before they could react, the entire hall shattered with motion.

"Wha–!!"

"How di–!!?"

"Don't let him do as he please!!!"

But it was already too late...

As Endless surged upward, dragging Kaelen like a ragdoll, through the obsidian ceiling itself as if it were smoke. Stone and shadow warped around them as they tore through the air, out of the palace and across the blasted landscapes of the Abyss.

The wind howled in Kaelen's ears as the sky yawned open above them, painted crimson by rivers of lava and storms of black lightning. Endless' grip tightened, his grin stretching wider as they cut through the sky like meteors.

Far below, Kaelen caught sight of the battlefield—Drake Grey and the forces of Eldoria clashing against an endless tide of Labyrinth Creatures, goblins, and orcs. Blood soaked the ground, the clang of steel and screams of war echoing upward. For an instant, Kaelen locked eyes with Morris's brother amidst the chaos. Drake's eyes widened in recognition—but he could not break away. He and his warriors were drowning in enemies, held back by the sheer tide of Endless' legion.

"KAELEN!" Drake roared, but his voice was swallowed by the roar of war as more creatures surged over him. He could only watch as Endless carried Kaelen higher and higher into the stormy skies.

Back within the throne room, chaos erupted.

Kelvin leapt forward, red light lightning qi bursting from his blade. "We have to go after him—!"

But before he could take a step, Kael Dragonyx rose to his feet, his greatsword slamming into the floor with enough force to crack the obsidian beneath them. "No. You stay here. None of you will interfere."

Alen lifted his staff, shadows twisting into serpents that writhed and hissed. "Endless has claimed his prey. The rest of you… belong to us."

Lila drew out her one of a kind scepter, her ice shimmering like moonlight as she moved to Kelvin's side. "Then we'll cut through you."

Guinevere's fire roared higher, her eyes narrowing. "One way or another, we'll reach Kaelen."

Alen stepped forward, his aura slicing through the air like invisible blades, his smile sharp. "Try it, little heroes. Try it, and die screaming."

The palace erupted into battle, steel and flame clashing against shadow and void, while high above, Endless carried Kaelen deeper into the storm, toward a battle that would decide everything.

---

The wind howled like a thousand wailing spirits as Kaelen was dragged higher into the blood-red sky. The land below grew small, the battlefields shrinking into patches of chaos. Endless' grip on him was iron, his claws biting into his flesh, but Kaelen's eyes never broke from his captor's. They burned—not with fear—but with a steady, cutting defiance.

"LET GO!!"

At last, with a surge of raw power, Kaelen twisted his body, his aura flaring violently. Blue light cracked through the storm, and in a single motion, he forced himself free. The shockwave tore through the air like a thunderclap, forcing Endless to release him as Kaelen flung himself backward, landing upon the very skies themselves as though the heavens had become his battlefield.

Endless did not move. He hovered effortlessly, a dark silhouette against the roiling storm. His smirk had not faded, though the clawed hand that once clutched Kaelen now flexed lazily at his side. "You resist well," he said, voice echoing across the torn winds. "But resistance is meaningless. You will break, Kaelen. And when you do, the Pandora will belong to me."

Kaelen leveled his blade, the Blade of Eternity, its sapphire glow searing through the darkness like a beacon. His chest heaved with controlled breaths, but his eyes remained steady. "I've told you already, Endless. Pandora is no longer yours to take. You think you've risen above the limits of mortality, that becoming a demigod places you beyond consequence. But even gods have laws. Even gods are watched."

For the first time, Endless' smirk faltered ever so slightly. His crimson eyes narrowed. "The Twelve Concepts…" he muttered, a hint of unease breaking through his arrogance. "Their Celestials. Their balance. They must have felt it already. They must know what I am about to do."

The skies groaned above them, lightning bursting like veins of fire. Endless lifted his gaze, almost expectant, almost… cautious. He extended his senses into the ether, searching for the divine gaze of higher beings, for the whisper of chains that should have bound him. For intervention. For judgment.

But nothing came.

No voice thundered from the void. No Celestial descended. The Twelve Concepts did not stir.

And that realization bloomed into pure, twisted joy within him. Endless' lips split into a wide, manic grin. His laughter thundered across the skies. "They do not come!" he bellowed, exultant. "The heavens do not move! Do you see, Kaelen? Even the Concepts themselves know they cannot stop me! I am beyond their law, beyond their reach!"

But Kaelen did not share in his mirth. His stance shifted, his blade pulsing with a deeper, more ancient light, as though the stars themselves were answering his call. The storm bent around him, winds twisting in reverence. Slowly, deliberately, Kaelen raised the Blade of Eternity high above his head.

Endless' laughter faltered. His grin froze as a chill unlike any he had felt in centuries washed through his core.

'What was that?'

The sapphire light erupted, stretching into the heavens, cutting through cloud and storm, painting the world below in hues of eternal blue. And from Kaelen's voice came not merely his own, but a chorus that resounded with infinite weight, echoing across realms and planes.

"I am no vessel. I am no pawn. I am no mere wielder of Pandora."

His body ignited with the light of eternity, armor of celestial brilliance forming across his form, his hair blazing like a silver flame. The Blade of Eternity shed its sapphire hue for a brilliance that defied description, its edge humming with a resonance that made reality itself tremble.

"I am the Avatar of Eternity—the will of an Eternity God incarnate."

The declaration rippled across creation. Far below, the battle stilled for a heartbeat, both ally and enemy pausing as the azure light bathed the land. The mages and warriors of Eldoria gasped. The elves clutched their hearts in awe. Even the Nullcarvers felt their qi stir as if an unseen tide had risen within them.

Endless' grin collapsed entirely, replaced with genuine confusion. His eyes widened as he spat, "Eternity God…? There is no such being. I have scoured the ancient texts, devoured the legacies of the dead! I would have known—!"

But Kaelen's eyes burned with the light of infinity, unshaken, unwavering. "You never heard of Him because you were never meant to. Eternity does not reveal itself to those who consume, only to those who endure. And I—was chosen."

The Blade of Eternity vibrated with a resonant hum, a sound like the heartbeat of the cosmos itself. Kaelen leveled it at Endless, the light burning so bright it seemed to sear the shadows off his foe's very form.

"You call yourself a demigod," Kaelen said, voice thundering with divine conviction. "But before Eternity, you are nothing more than a shadow that refuses to fade."

For the first time since rising to his newfound power, Endless felt it—something he had long forgotten. Not doubt. Not fear. But the presence of something greater than himself.

And it enraged him.

His roar split the skies, shaking the very bones of the world, as he spread his arms wide. "Then let Eternity watch as I tear its chosen Avatar apart!"

The heavens themselves prepared to shatter, as the demigod of Abyss and the Avatar of Eternity God clashed for the fate of creation.